Flood disaster sparks idea for bike-powered emergency response

From back left, Metro State students Lance Ferguson, Jake Jartner and Nile Fedewa talk about their emergency-response trailer. Their system can charge mobile devices, provide Wi-Fi and carry first-aid supplies. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Jim Turner was stranded by floods last September. Neighbors were borrowing his small generator to charge phones. Roads were washed out, passable only on foot and bike.

In the chaos, the Boulder creator of the popular Optibike electric bicycle sparked on an idea: a bike-pulled, emergency-response trailer that could swiftly bring help to people stranded by natural disaster. It would have batteries to charge electronics and filters to clean water, and it could, in a pinch, even extract injured people.

On Thursday, Turner's ad hoc research design team presented potential ideas for the development of an emergency-response trailer that could convert his high-performance, off-road electric bikes into rescue vehicles.

Metro State students Jake Jartner, left, and Lance Ferguson show how their emergency-response trailer works. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

The innovative ideas flowed from two dozen Metropolitan State University of Denver industrial design students who worked in teams to develop concept designs for Turner's Bicycle Emergency Response Trailer, or BERT.

"It reminds me of the beginning of Optibike," Turner said, snapping photos of design features he hoped to adopt. "This is something that hasn't been done before. There's so much room to be creative. There's a freedom here."

Since 2006, the two-time Motocross National Champion and author of the "The Electric Bike Book" has pioneered the growing electric-bike market with speedy, durable Optibikes, which are sold in 33 countries.

Optibikes, priced from $2,800 to $14,000, can be pedaled, but they feature motorized bottom brackets and lithium batteries that can climb hills and zip along at close to 25 mph. Off-road models can go anywhere a mountain bike can go and the motor can tow more than 200 pounds.

Turner was already planning to court both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the military with potential uses for his e-bikes when Hurricane Sandy struck in October 2012, stranding thousands of East Coast residents without power or transportation. And then, a year later, his own family was trapped in Boulder by September's floods.

As stranded residents and rescuers turned to bikes to ferry supplies and help, Turner saw the need for a sturdy, solar-powered trailer that could reach suddenly isolated areas, delivering necessities and providing emergency power for residents to charge phones and lights.

He enlisted his pal David Klein, a professor of industrial design at Metro State who recruited students to develop concepts. Both Klein and Turner set guidelines that required solar power, a narrow width able to access trails, room for emergency shelter and supplies, and a weight limit that wouldn't bog down the Optibike.

After building quarter-scale models, the students on Thursday presented their ideas to Turner — and to Klein, who was grading the projects.

Turner didn't initially envision the trailer coming apart into separate components. But most of the student designs had the top part of the trailer converting into a table, leaving the base free to roll away for hauling water or even injured people.

Every team considered streamlining the trailers, with removable wheels and stackable features for transportation and storage. Turner said he found valuable elements in each of the seven designs he reviewed.

"Everyone of them, I see something I like," he said. "I don't think any one is perfect, but that's the neat thing about different teams: Everyone has a different perspective."

Disaster relief is only one potential for his e-bike trailers. Klein said future uses could include deliveries by urban grocers. Turner said international groups could use them to enable remote villages with power and transportation.

But Thursday was about emergency response.

Student Patrick Quinn's team focused on medical care. Their trailer dismantled into litters that a crew could use to rush injured people to care. Compartments held containers that could collect, store and filter water.

The swift-evacuation focus came from Quinn's military service in Iraq.

"These are real-world ideas. They won't be able to do a whole lot, but you can get people out quickly," Quinn said. "I've got all sorts of ideas for this."